Paintbrushes
by Scwibbleee
Summary: Davis Mitchell is the new Art Teacher at Waterloo Road School. Set 7-11. Not sure where I'm going with this yet so please give it a read and possibly gimme your suggestions! Rated T because its WR ;
1. New Girl In The Staffroom

Davis Mitchell yawned and stretched. She looked around her dark room. She got out of her bed, her joints clicking as she did so. She opened up her curtains and squinted as she did so. Today was her first day at work. Yes, a proper job.

Her parents hadn't always accepted her choice of career path, but they had come 'round. Now all Davis had to concentrate on was getting through the month without paying rent on her flat; a small amount of rent was already overdue. As soon as payday came, she could pay it off and everything would be sorted.

She got changed and did her hair. She straigtened it out, happily sighing as her blonde locks fell around her shoulders. She put on some eyeliner, mascara and concealer and proceeded to get changed. So, the interview was all 'posh posh smart smart' but what about actually working? She wanted to make a good impression on her first day, but then again she didn't want her colleagues to think she was stuck up. She was an art teacher for gods sake! To be honest she was in luck getting this job in the first place, her only being an NQT. But Waterloo Road's new 'Super-Head' Michael Byrne wanted to breathe new life into the school, so amongst his head hunting looked for the brightest sparks within the colleges. Davis' apparent enthusiasm had won it. But Davis wasn't honestly looking forward to starting. All new people. But this was life.

She settled for some tight-hugging navy trousers, not her preferred choice of colour but she wanted to seem 'professional'. She put on a belt with a guitar pattern on it, and a cream blouse. Well, it was more of a shirt than a blouse. She put her black and white low-top converse all stars on over blue socks and padded down the small stairs of her maisonette to put some toast in the toaster.

Davis had begun to stop worrying about her finances and was now transforming her nervousness into excitement. What were the staff going to be like? Would they welcome her? Or would they deem her as 'incapable' because of her youth and brand new qualifications? Would she make friends, or would she have to sit in her car alone to eat her lunch?

Her thoughts were cut short because of her toast springing out of the toaster. She put it on her plate and spread it with strawberry jam, before reaching for the remote to switch the news on.

Nothing much had happened, so she switched the television off once she had finished her toast and went to grab her hoodie. She flung it on her back before checking her shoulder bag. Many pens, some syllabus related material, sketch pad, pencils, a reading book.

Yep, she was all set. This was it. She flung her bag over her shoulder and grabbed her keys, taking one last look around before leaving and locking the door. She smiled at her neighbours as she walked down the stairs and nodded at the guy putting his bins out. Her car was parked directly outside, she could never be bothered to walk very far. Her car was a dirty silver. Not that brand-spanking new upper class kind of shiny silver. Kind of a worn silver. It wasn't small like a Ford Fiesta, or big like either kind of Rover. It was in the middle, which was just how Davis liked it. She unlocked the door and fell into the drivers side, switching on the radio. It was in the middle of a song, '_Build Me up Buttercup_'. She hummed along and quietly sung along to the words as she put her bag in the passenger seat. Soon that bag would be full of books for marking. She strapped her seatbelt across her and gently pulled out of her street, still singing. '_I need you, I need you, more than anyone darling..._' she needed this to keep herself cheery.

She pulled into the carpark. There were already a few kids there, but not many. Davis took a deep intake of breath and checked her reflection in the mirror. Fine. She picked up her bag and sat for a moment, taking it all in. Then, deciding not to waste anymore time, she got out.

There were a few boys playing football, some just standing around chatting. One in a chavvy designer jacket noticed her as she was locking her car door. "Alright Miss? You new? What do you teach? It dun' matter, you can teach me anytime!" The rest of the boys in the pack laughed and began to wolf whistle. Davis shook her head and made her way into the building.

She passed the science room. She knew where she was going, she'd already been given the grand tour by Michael. So far, he was the only one she'd met. She went up the flights of stairs passing chatting kids as she went. Then, she began the long walk down the corridor to the staff room. It seemed to take forever, although when she finally got to the door she kinda wished it had been longer. She felt like a student again, nervous to knock on a door to a room teachers were in. She was about to knock, when she realised she _wasn't_ a student anymore and walked straight in. She went into the main part. There were shelves, some chairs, some magazines, a little kitchen area. It was just how she had imagined it. Unsure of what to do, she loitered for a little bit. That was when a man came out of nowhere into her line of sight. He'd noticed the look on her face.

"You alright there?" He was short. Taller than Davis, but shorter than most other men she'd met. You could say, 'tall for women, short for men' if that wasn't kinda sexist. He had short, brown hair and brown stubble. He had blue eyes and all in all, his physique was friendly and welcoming. He let out a little laugh. "New I take it?" Davis grinned and nodded. He held out his hand "Tom Clarkson, pleased to meet ya." Davis shook it.

"I'm Davis Mitchell, very nice to meet you too." Tom retrieved his hand.

"Davis?" He seemed to nod in acceptance "Nice name."

"Yeah."

"Sounds quite butch... if you don't mind me saying." Tom regained himself as not to offend the young woman. She just continued to grin.

"I know. Put it down on paper, you'd think I was a man." She shrugged her shoulders. "Still, goes to show you shouldn't immediately assume."

"Too right." He walked over to the kitchen area where a kettle had nearly boiled and Davis sheepshly followed him. After all, she had nowhere else to go. He got out a plain white mug and put it next to one she assumed was his. "Tea or coffee?"

"Erm, tea please. I'd rather not get too hyped up this morning." Tom smirked and made her tea.

"You'll have to bring your own mug in at some point," he said.

"Yeah..." In all truth Davis didn't have that many mugs. Tom noticed her deep in thought.

"Or... I could always get you one? As a welcome present." Davis shook her head.

"No, no. You don't have to do that." She drunk her tea as more and more teachers began piling into the staffroom. "I never asked what you teach, Tom." Davis half-asked.

"Oh, English." She nodded. "And I'm up for Deputy Head this term."

"Ooh, really. Well, congratulations."

"What about you?"

"Oh, Art."

"You into all that foncy-poncy stuff then are you?"

Davis giggled. "Hardly. I'm not bad at other stuff too, but drawing is where I flourish. Why not pass on my talent to other kids?"

"You're not big on yourself at all."

Davis giggled again. "Its just something I enjoy." Tom put his coffee down.

"Yeah well, the last art teacher we had, a supply; he was all down with that kind of stuff. Nature and greenpeace and all that. He was absolutely off his narkers."

"Ooooh, you talking about our irrplaceable Mr. Glowers are you?" An old dinosaur walked over to Tom and Davis and began using the boiled water in the kettle.

"Uh, Grantly. This is Davis. Davis Mitchell. Davis this is Grantly Budgeon, our head of English." Davis stuck her hand out, but Grantly just stared at her before going back to his business with the kettle.

"New blood are you? Well trust me, you'll soon want out. The kids if they can be called that, are little horrors you would not believe." Davis put her hand back around her tea. Tom gave her a look as if to say he was always like that. Tom introduced her to some more teachers, they both also met new staff. Although many were much more experienced then Davis, she felt comfortable. Then Michael came in and gave a pre-registration chat. He introduced people. Tom turned to Davis afterwards.

"You picked up your timetable yet?"

"Oh, no!" Davis exclaimed.

"Well, you better go and pick it up from your pigeon hole." With that, he left. She went and picked up two envelopes from her pigeon hole.

"Great, Year 11 first..." She sighed as she closed one. She opened up her other one. "A Year 10 form..." She must have inherited it from a teacher that left last year. Well, no rest for the wicked. With that, she picked up the formalities from her pigeon hole and left.


	2. Pleased And Not So Pleased

Davis walked down two flights of stairs, headed for her nice new shiny art room. It was on the ground floor and at the bottom of the stairs, before a long corridor with the drama/music room and the science lab on it. There were a bunch of enthusiastic looking Year Tens outside of it, which was a surprise. They were Year Tens. It was the start of term. Maybe they were curious as to who their new tutor was. Well, that would be her.

"Alright guys, c'mon. Go on in." She ushered the students into the room through the previously opened door... way? There was no door. Okay, she knew it was an art room but... no door? Seriously? What if you need to block out corridor noise? Oh well, she would have to make do. She was about to go in when a man with a mop of blonde hair strolled over to her.

"Hey! I'm Matt." He stuck out his hand to her and she shook it. "Matt Wilding. I've got the room next to you."

"Oh! The drama room!" Davis perked up. She always liked music and drama. As a matter of fact any form of 'art' she enjoyed. Anything fun, or which required little work.

"Yeah. I'm the HoD."

Davis giggled and gave him a friendly whack. "Wow, get you! So, are you new here too?"

"Erm... yeah. Although I used to work here, so I'm kind of returning."

"Oh, cool."

"What about you?"

"Oh, I'm new to the profession. This is my first teaching post."

"Ah, right. Well, good luck then"

"You too!" Davis giggled and Matt went back to send his form in. She went inside to face her new lot of students. "Right, everyone. Hello, my name is Miss Mitchell." Some of the kids groaned, which sounded a bit like 'Hello'. Teenagers never change. "So, 'cause this is our first time meeting eachother, if anyones got any questions they'd like to ask then fire away." A blonde girl with short scruffy hair put her hand up, which Davis thought was polite. She nodded at her. "Yes?"

"How old are you Miss?"

"22." The girl nodded. "Whats your name?"

"Scout Miss."

"Scout? Okay then." Another voice piped up from the cluster of kids.

"Is this your first time teaching Miss?" Davis looked at the boy. "Denzil."

"Hi, Denzil. Yes, it is."

"Have you got a boyfriend Miss?" A girl with dark hair asked. "I'm Emily James."

"Hi Emily. No, I haven't. Thank god. Too much trouble. More than what they're worth, boyfriends!" More questions kept coming.

"Are you married Miss?"

"No, I'm not."

"I like your hair Miss. Do you dye it?"

"No, I don't."

"What subject do you teach Miss?"

"Art and Design."

"Have you met Mr Budgeon, Miss?"

"I'm afraid I have."

"Can you get me out of 5th period, Miss?"

"No Denzil, I cannot." Soon the bell rang for 1st period and Davis' form left for their lessons. No one had shown up for her first class yet, which she took as a blessing. She got some A3 paper and began putting some on each table. She also got some felt tip pens and placed a pot on each table. Then, she felt someone walk through her doorway. She turned. Stood there, was a man. He was considerably tall, not quite lanky but not stocky either. The perfect medium. He was handsome and had very dark brown/black hair, which stuck up at the front a bit like Tom's. He was wearing a light blue shirt which had the long sleeves rolled up with a light grey tie, grey trousers and brown shoes. He smiled at Davis and walked in a bit more. Davis walked over to him.

"Ahhh, you must be my new member," he smirked. "You, must be Davis Mitchell."

"Ohhhhh." Davis pointed at him in remembrance. "YOU, must be Derek." He stuck his hand out for her to shake.

"We spoke on the phone, very pleased to meet you. Its Derek Walker by the way." They shook hands and Davis grinned.

"Well, nice to put a face to the voice."

"Indeed. Just thought I'd come and introduce myself, seeing as I'm your HoD. Also, to... wish you luck." He glanced around the room.

"What do you think?" She asked, nervously.

"Well... it looks pretty good. Just remember that they're a GCSE group and here by choice, so don't forget to give them a challenge. Don't be too soft on them, either. Apart from that, I think you're gonna be fine." He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder and Davis noticed his shining blue eyes, which matched hers. He looked at the doorway which had her class loitering outside. "Come talk to me later about where they are on the course and what work they were doing last year. Ok?" Davis nodded and he left. After he had gone, the class began piling in. She turned away from them and took a deep breath. Not because she was nervous, because of him. HE WAS GORGEOUS.

"Alright, settle down guys, come on!" The Year 11's sat in their groups by the tables. "Okay, nice to meet you. My name is Miss Mitchell and I will be your Art teacher this year. So, I want us to have an easy start, especially seeing as this is your final GCSE year. So, what I've done is I've given you an A3 sheet of paper and some some colouring pens. What I would like you to do is sketch out yourself. If not, a conventional Waterloo Road pupil. I want you to colour them in and around them write down all of the worries and stuff you think that they might have. So... parents? Friends? Exams? Coursework... sex? Make this person into a character you feel you or any other teenager could relate to. Right? Begin." The class became animated immediately. Wow, Davis didn't think it would be that easy to motivate Year 11's.

About halfway through the lesson, Davis was walking around looking at everybodys work. Thats when someone caught her attention. A girl, with bright shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair and a distracted look on her face. She'd sketched out her person, to be honest it looked mediocre. She was now sat with her head in her left hand, not doing anything at all. Davis bent down beside her. "You alright?" She asked. The girl nodded. She looked to the bottom of the girls sketch, _Lottie Jones_. "Lottie...?" Of course Davis had just read her full name, but she wanted the girl to speak to her.

"Jones."

"Lottie Jones. Alright then Lottie, are you going to tell me the truth or are you gonna have suffer my torture!" Her attempt to make Lottie smile had failed. "Maybe a spell in the cooler? I know you haven't really done anything but... you're not doing any work and it gets you away from this lot..." She looked around at the rest of the class being very noisy. Lottie didn't budge. Davis sighed. "C'mon Lottie... I'm trying here?" Lottie moodily picked up her stuff and stood up. She looked to the doorway, which was when a girl with long, dark hair burst in. She had bangs, which had multi-coloured streaks in. She also had a very short skirt. She stared at Lottie, Lottie stared back before fleeing the classroom and running down the corridoor. Davis chased after her. "Lottie? Lottie wait!" She got to where the latecomer was stood and Lottie had already vacated the hallway. She turned to the girl. "And whats your name?"

"Alexczia, Alexczia Davies."

**(A/N): Oooooooh, whats happening with Lottie? :O has we got ourselves a possible storyline? I think so.**

**And maybe some Davis X Derek I see? Hrmmm...**

**Sorry for no Authors Note on the first chappie, I wasn't sure whether I'd post it or not you see... but I did! So please R&R, tis mucho appreciated. And give me ideas for characters and plots etc... I love audience input! XD**


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